Animal Research - Thermal Stress

Climate stress induced by both normal climatic conditions and climate change is an important issue facing the livestock industries in Australia and globally.

 Researchers within the School have been engaged in researching the impacts of climatic stress on livestock since 2000, and have attracted in excess of $2.5 million in research funding.
 
The School has developed on-going collaborative linkages with universities and research organisations in Australia (University of Melbourne; CSIRO; Dairy Australia), and the USA (USDA, Universities of Nebraska, Missouri and Arizona).
 
Since the commissioning of this work we have published 20 peer reviewed papers, 6 book chapters and 22 conference papers. Student research has resulted in two PhDs, 3 Masters and 2 honours degrees being awarded. We currently have 1 PhD and 1 honours student working in this research area.
 
The main focus of our work has been to gain an understanding of animal responses to thermal load, and the development of alleviation strategies to overcome climate stress. A major outcome from this work has been the development of a new heat load model for beef cattle and a risk assessment program. Both of these are now essential and compulsory components of the feedlot industries accreditation scheme.
 
Another outcome has been our work on shade allocation for feedlot cattle, the recommendations from which are now being adopted by industry. These studies have led to improvements in the welfare of feedlot cattle especially over the summer months.
 
Our current work, funded by the federal Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, is the development of a heat load model for dairy cows and a risk assessment program for the dairy industry. This project has attracted attention from the USA and NZ and we are currently looking into further research linkages.

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